We’re staying in a town named Canmore, which is just south of the town of Banff (not to be confused with Banff National Park, which Banff is in but Canmore is not). Jaclyn and I have totally fallen in love with Canmore. It’s a perfect size town that is pretty much walkable and it very much has a ski town lodge vibe.
Jaclyn went out for a run and texted me these pics since she was so excited about Canmore.
We started this morning by heading to the trailhead for the Grassi Fields hike. Unfortunately, we effectively drove up the mountain and arrived at the trailhead for the Grassi Fields rock climbings. Luckily, on our way back down we ran into a bighorn sheep!
As we did the 1 mile hike we realized just how out of shape the general public is. With Beckett we’re limited to a lot of the more touristy stuff, but it is kind of strange when a 3 year old is doing better on a hike than a lot of the adults around us…
Roughly 3/4 of the way up Beckett decided to explore off the side of trail and promptly fell in the rocks/gravel. Luckily, Brooke was there to help him feel better and we continued incentivizing both of them to the top with fruit snacks (aka gummies).
The viewpoint at the top did not disappoint and lives up to the Grassi Lakes name! The water is somehow teal and completely transparent so you can see the grass growing on the bottom of the lake.
We explored up top for a bit and just took in the sights and sounds. We didn’t get to spend as much time as we probably wanted to because we have a more strict schedule for the day today. So we headed down and I’m pretty sure Brooke told us how tired her legs were every step of the way. Luckily, with Beckett, I managed to teach him a walk/run zig-zag that seems to keep him entertained and allows him to hike quickly without tripping.
Once off the hike we drove 10 minutes into town and got some lunch at the Grizzly Paw Brew Pub. This was a rare restaurant stop as the kids palletes aren’t exactly compatible with most restaurants. Jaclyn and I both got some delicious brisket sandwiches where the brisket was cooked like bacon, almost into thin brisket strips.
After a quick stop back at the AirBnB we headed into the town of Banff for the first time and saw the insane mobs of people just walking up and down both sides of the streets. Originally, we were trying to stay in Banff but I’m so happy we weren’t and we got Canmore recommended to us!
Luckily, all we had to do was drive through the downtown area of Banff and then we proceeded to park at the Country Club to meet up with our rafting (float) tour down the Bow river.
The Bow river is a glacial river and has that spectacular teal color. It also has a pretty strong current in a lot of places and is very cold! We floated down the river as we took in spectacular 360 degree views of the surrounding mountains. We learned that the glacial water is free of bacteria but the rock flour, which gives it that unique color, is effectively little rocks. So, drinking it without filtering out the rocks does some damage.
We saw some random tourists trying to go down the river on flamingo floaties and the tour guides were pretty concerned about them and tried to warn them this isn’t really a river you play around on.
About halfway down the 5 mile float we stopped in an eddy and we got to stand in the water and hang out for a few minutes. It was incredibly refreshing (as it was very sunny!) but man is it cold. To me, it tops Hampton in that your body doesn’t adjust to the coldness.
As we finished the float we were getting very hot and finally realizing that the hottest part of their day isn’t probably until 3 or 4pm since the sun doesn’t set until ~10:30pm. This would prove useful to us for the rest of the trip!
After we got out of the float and the kids played in the river a bit we took the bus back to the start. Luckily, on our short bus ride we saw 4 elk (including a baby) right on the side of the road! The tour guide had said previously that the Elk love the golf course and will frequently sit on the hole to stop the golfers from golfing haha.
Once we got back to our car we were pretty tired from a full day and the hot sun so we drove back to Canmore and called it a night for the kids.
Jaclyn couldn’t resist going out to walk around Canmore some more and enjoy the calm of the evening.
-Jay
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